VPC sharing allows multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts to create cloud resources, such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Server Load Balancer (SLB), and ApsaraDB RDS instances, in shared and centrally-managed virtual private clouds (VPCs). Shared VPCs are based on the resource sharing mechanism. A VPC owner can share vSwitches with other Alibaba Cloud accounts that belong to the same Alibaba Cloud enterprise account organization.

Features

A VPC owner (resource owner) can share non-default vSwitches with other Alibaba Cloud accounts (resource users). The resource owner and resource users must belong to the same resource directory. A resource directory allows you to create a hierarchical map of relations among resources and facilitates resource management. For more information, see Resource sharing overview.

After a vSwitch is shared, resource users can use the vSwitch without confirmation by default. Resource users can create cloud resources such as ECS, SLB, and ApsaraDB RDS instances, in the shared vSwitch. Instances created by the resource owner and users in the same VPC can communicate with each other within the VPC by default.Shared VPC diagram

Feature and supported regions

The following table lists the regions that support the VPC sharing feature.

Area Supported region
Asia Pacific China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu), China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore (Singapore), Australia (Sydney), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and Indonesia (Jakarta)
Europe and Americas US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Germany (Frankfurt), and UK (London)
Middle East and India India (Mumbai) and UAE (Dubai)
The following table lists the regions that support the resource sharing feature.
Area Supported region
Asia Pacific China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), and Singapore (Singapore)
The VPC sharing feature is limited by the resource sharing feature. Therefore, the following regions actually support the VPC sharing feature: China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), and Singapore (Singapore).

Permissions of the resource owner and resource users

After a resource owner shares a vSwitch with a resource user, the resource owner and user have the following permissions on the shared vSwitch and the resources in the shared vSwitch:

Role Supported operation Unsupported operation
Resource owner
  • Create, view, modify, and delete resources that belong to the resource owner in the shared vSwitch.
  • View the following attributes of resources created by the resource user in the shared vSwitch:
    • Instance ID.
    • Private IP address.
    • Resource owner account.
 Modify or delete resources created by the resource user in the shared vSwitch.
Resource user If the vSwitch is shared, the resource user can create, modify, or delete cloud resources, such as ECS, SLB, and ApsaraDB RDS instances, in the shared vSwitch. If the vSwitch is shared, the resource user cannot view, modify, or delete the resources created by other Alibaba Cloud accounts (resource owners and resource users) in the shared vSwitch.
If the vSwitch is no longer shared, the resource user can view, use, modify, and delete the resources that are created by the resource user in the vSwitch. If the vSwitch is no longer shared, the resource user cannot view the resources associated with the vSwitch, such as VPCs, route tables, and network ACLs. In addition, the resource user cannot create resources in the vSwitch.
The resource owner and resource user have the following permissions on other network resources:
Network resource Resource owner operation Resource user operation
VPC All operation permissions. View the VPC to which the shared vSwitch belongs.
vSwitches All operation permissions.
Note If the resource owner wants to delete the vSwitch, the vSwitch must not be shared with the resource user. In addition, the resources created by the resource owner and resource user in the vSwitch must be deleted.
  • View the shared vSwitch.
  • Create, modify, and delete cloud resources, such as ECS, ApsaraDB RDS, and SLB instances, in the shared vSwitch.
Route tables All operation permissions. View route tables and route entries that are associated with the shared vSwitch.
Network ACLs All operation permissions. View network ACLs that are associated with the shared vSwitch.
Private CIDR blocks View private CIDR blocks of the VPC and all vSwitches that belong to the VPC. View the private CIDR block of the shared vSwitch.
Flow logs
  • Create flow logs for a specified VPC or vSwitch. The system records traffic information about elastic network interfaces (ENIs) of the vSwitch that belongs to the resource user.
  • Create flow logs for a specified ENI. The system records traffic information about ENIs that belong to the resource owner.
No operation permission.
NAT gateways All operation permissions.
Note
  • The resources created by the resource owner and resource user in the vSwitch can communicate with the Internet through NAT gateways.
  • NAT gateways can be associated with only the elastic IP addresses (EIPs) that belong to the resource owner.
No operation permission.
VPN gateways All operation permissions.
Note The resources created by the resource owner and resource user in the vSwitch can communicate with external networks through VPN gateways.
No operation permission.
Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) instances All operation permissions.
Note The resources created by the resource owner and resource user in the vSwitch can communicate with external networks through CEN instances.
No operation permission.
VPC peering connections All operation permissions.
Note The resources created by the resource owner and resource user in the vSwitch can communicate with external networks through VPC peering connections.
No operation permission.
Tags Resource sharing does not affect the tags added to resources by the resource owner. When the vSwitch is shared, the resource owner and resource user can add tags to their own resources. The resource user cannot view the tags added by the resource owner and the resource owner cannot view the tags added by the resource user. The tags added by the resource owner and resource user do not affect each other. When the vSwitch is not shared, the system deletes the tags added by the resource user in the vSwitch.

Billing rules

In a shared VPC, each resource user pays for his or her own instances such as ECS, SLB, and ApsaraDB RDS instances. However, fees of gateway resources such as NAT gateways, VPN gateways, and public bandwidth are paid by the resource owner.

Limits

The following table lists the quota limits on a shared VPC.
Note Shared VPCs also follow the usage and quota limits of standard VPCs. The quota limits on a shared VPC is not affected by the number of resource users. For more information, see Limits.
Item Limit Adjustable
Number of resource users supported by each VPC 20 N/A
Number of resource users supported by each vSwitch in a VPC 20
Number of vSwitches that can be shared with each resource user 10
Number of IP addresses that each VPC can use Shared by the resource owner and resource users
Types of vSwitches that can be shared Non-default vSwitches
Cloud resources that can be created in a shared vSwitch
  • ECS instances
  • Server Load Balancer (SLB) instances
  • ApsaraDB for RDS instances
  • Terway
  • ApsaraDB for MongoDB instances
  • ApsaraDB for Redis instances
  • Message Queue for Apache Kafka instances
  • Elastic Search
  • Container Registry instances
  • PolarDB for MySQL clusters
Limits on security groups in a shared VPC
  • A resource user cannot create resources in security groups that belong to other resource users or the resource owner. The security groups include the default security group.
  • The resource owner cannot create resources in security groups that belong to resource users

Enable VPC sharing

For more information, see Enable VPC sharing.